Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg today during the crucial debate on whether the new commission should be endorsed, DUP MEP Jim Allister said, “In the run up to this debate we have seen left wing and liberal hysteria reach a crescendo.

Those who talk the most about human rights and freedom of speech when put to the test have hypocritically displayed themselves as utterly intolerant in their virulent attacks upon Commissioner Designate Butteglione.

I regret that you too Mr President diminished your office by joining the left wing herd in what, however it's dressed up, amounts to a denial of the Commission Designate's right to freedom of thought and speech.

It is a sad commentary on the state of moral probity in this House that one who dares to hold to moral rectitude is so relentlessly vilified.

However, for me the defining issue is something else, it is that I will not endorse by my vote government by unelected placemen.

I for one will not lend them the veneer of democratic respectability which this vote is designed to give them.  Thus I will vote against the Commission".

Click here to view the speech made today by Jim Allister